AC Commander troubleshoot

I would look at your antenna connection and placement of the antenna in the shell.

If the antenna doesn't do it, I'd swap out the R4LC on the AC Commander.  You can use the ERR supplied R4LC-08, or any R2LC-08 or later.  IF that corrects the issue, you need a new board.

An update.  Pulled the shell, checked all the connections and stretched the antenna out, reseated the board.  Locomotive still responds sporadically with a new twist.  The pullmor motor will crawl so I let it creep around the layout to see if the signal loss was time dependent.  It seems at low speed there is no signal loss BUT if the throttle is advanced to what seems to be over 30 smph the locomotive stops.  If the direction is changed it will proceed several feet then stop.  At that point a flick of the power is required to bring it back to life. 

I do not have a spare r4lc.  Can I pull one from a non AC commander to test further?  Based on symptoms is this a course of action?

I would check for intermittent power from the rollers to the boards.  Perhaps a cold solder joint in the wiring or on the board.  Going faster may shake the connections more.

Jan

Jan, I am able to rule out the rollers as the problem.  Headlight never loses power and that is tied directly to the board.  I would not know where to begin if there is a bad connection on the board.  Time to loosen and reconnect the leads from the board to the motor.

Do you have rail sound connect to this?  If so disconnect the RS power harness and test engine with AC commander only.  G

Is your RL4C board completely seated on the AC Commander? I had this occur on one of my installations, reseated the board but it did not seat completely. I pulled the board and reseated,  this time it went down maybe another 1/4", that solved the problem. The symptoms were the same as yours.

Ray

Did you properly install the caps on the motor?  Bypassing the brushes is key to maintaining the signal.  Truthfully, that or some continuity of the power seem like the top suspects here.  The fact that it's stopping and will immediately start moving again suggests that.

One thing of note.  There have been some issues with the R4LC with failures that look just like this, I have several that came back to me in customer jobs that exhibited the same kind of issue.

Appreciate the responses, I will check the caps and wiring to the motor as well as repeating the seating of the board.  No there is no sound connected to this, I was looking only for the ability to operate the locomotive with the rest of the TMCC fleet.  Given the age and simplicity of the unit I did not think any further investment was warranted.

I only mention because integration of sound can cause issues with corruption of the serial data and or the R4LC processor operation.  Rare and usually when composite parts used.  I have seen the very timed based failure.  Interesting that John has seen this with some R4LC ERR boards too.  Seems similar.  G

Going back to an earlier question/comment, -

Yes, you could pull a R4LC-08, or any R2LC-08 or later board from a working locomotive and see if the problem stays or goes.  This may help isolate the issue a bit more.

Best,

An update for the ongoing mystery.  Checked all the connections to the AC commander especially the antenna, ran the loco conventional with no problem at all.  Then ran it under TMCC, ran fine for 15 minutes.  Figured problem solved.  Added front and rear led lights, attempted to run this with TMCC and problem returned.  I doubt the lights have anything to do with the issue but will remove them and try again.  Still have to find a R4LC or R2LC to swap into this critter.  Since I generally do not like football this will be a New Years Day experiment.  Happy New Year to all.

Final update I hope.  Problem ac commander had a r2lc c08 silver board.  I pulled it and placed on what I had, a r4lc s08 s01 board.  Locomotive works like a charm.  For fun I placed the r2lc in the donor locomotive.  Low and behold it too worked like a charm.  Returning it to the original problem loco and problem returned.  Right now my go to solution is to make the swap permenant.  I am not one to quibble about outcomes but why would the simple swap work?

We have been tracking similar issues with the R4LC-08 that come with the ERR boards, and so far no concrete resolution.  If you have a working combination, my suggestion it to keep it.

Since the r2lc was the one with the problem not the r4 that isn't encouraging.  Are these R boards available for seperate purchase or do I have to buy either a complete ac or cruise commander?  I think having a spare on the shelf is a prudent plan.

You can use an R2LC-08 or the ERR R4LC-08 in the AC Commander.  The R2LC-08 parts are still available from Lionel, and the R4LC-08 is available from ERR.

Aren't S code R4LC Legacy not TMCC based...  G

Yes, but I'm talking about the ERR supplied R4LC-08, which is functionally identical to the R2LC-08.  The R4LC-Sxx versions are all Legacy code base.

NEC said one was S code he swapped, that is what I am referring too. One of his boards is TMCC and one is legacy.  G

You got me, I missed that.  You are 100% correct, the S board is indeed Legacy.